Does the UK hold all the cards? (Thread) 
We certainly were told we hold all the cards.
Yet when the EU proposed a fall-back position which went some way to solving our problems, people lost their minds, as if the UK has no power in this.
This is clearly nonsensical. If the UK don’t like the position put to them, then as part of this negotiation, they are now in the driving seat.
Rather than throwing a tantrum, the UK should be sending David Davis back to Brussels with Jim Allister and Jacob Rees-Mogg to buy more time.
Jim Allister can explain to the EU that they have interpreted Article 50 wrong and it actually guarantees us a trade deal.
Once the EU Commission understand where they were going wrong, Jacob Rees-Mogg can then explain how they have misinterpreted the 1969 Vienna convention and their citizens, and our citizens, will be fine!
While they do that the UK pulls out their secret weapon: The Vote Leave plan. A very detailed plan of how to leave the EU. The culmination of 25 years work by people such as Douglas Carswell.
And Douglas doesn’t work with mediocre people, so we know it’s going to be excellent. It is an established fact that non-mediocre people definitely wouldn’t make detailed plans to leave the EU that fail to address issues as large as the Irish border.
In fact they must have done, because they "sought to correct” claims there would be a border during the campaign. “Correct” is a word associated with facts, and not just a load of ropey old lies you tell people to get what you want.
With that plan, and all the constructive expert replies to this thread, the UK then invites Owen Patterson, Theresa Villiers, and Penny Mordaunt to a meeting.
Owen Patterson can share all his plans to keep the common travel area, the border as it is, and the “very, very, satisfactory extraordinary integrated arrangements” we have today.
Then Penny Mordaunt can detail the whole raft of measures she knows about.
Theresa Villiers can explain why we don’t need border controls if we have a Brexit vote.
With all of the information and experts in one place, the UK can create what is referred to in negotiation terms as a “Counter proposal”, detailing the unlimited access to the Single Market, and non-border arrangement, that we voted for.
Then you can submit that to the European Commission, and that is the end of that. Problem solved. There is absolutely no need to get upset.
However, let’s just say, hypothetically, the UK take the very detailed Vote Leave plans, 25 years of Douglas Carswell’s ideas, the expert knowledge of two ex-Northern Ireland secretaries, Penny Mordaunt’s measures, and then come up with the sum total of: Whoopee doo jack-shit...
Then we must conclude that the EU Commission isn’t the one being arrogant, or trying to annex Northern Island, but simply trying to propose a solution that works in the real world to a problem created by some people living in a fantasy world of their own creation.
In this case, it is the people who don’t want Brexit who are actually doing the work, while the Leavers disappear into their “think tanks” and “research groups” while continuing to play the only cards they have.
Not, as some believe, Mr Bun the Baker, Pikachu, a Shadowmage, a fireball spell, and the Fool (H/T @JohnnyPixels)
But the cards they have been playing since long before the referendum.
Cards like the ‘ECJ’ card, played when a foreign judge in a court that is not in the UK objectively determined a fishing law was unconstitutional in the same way a UK judge in the Supreme Court would have done, but their nationality and location was somehow a problem.
The ‘European Citizenship’ card. Played when Freedom of Labour was changed to Freedom of Movement because they “forced federalism on us”. Despite it being the brainchild of non-Federalist Spanish Prime Minister, Felipe González, who was openly hostile to Federalists in his party.
And the cards they played in the run up to the referendum.
The ‘Government Information’ card. Played to suggest the information the government publish is just a piece of propaganda that everyone should burn, ignore...and then treat one particular paragraph like it is Holy Scripture when people suggest it was an advisory referendum.
And the cards they are playing since the referendum
The ‘Cash’ card to say the EU just want our money. That it’s all we are to them, and that’s why they are being difficult. A card they continue to play, despite the money being agreed and progress being bad, because otherwise they’d have to admit they were wrong.
The ‘Exceptionalism’ card. Assumingly they are playing this card now because they’ve spent years convincing themselves the Republic of Ireland “did what it was told on Lisbon” and can’t work out why they are now acting like a country that doesn’t just do what it is told.
And, of course, after Brexit, those cards are still going to be played.
The ‘Sovereignty’ card will be played when the UK realises they are not getting their own way in international organisations, like UNECE, anywhere near as often as they did in the EU.
The ‘Bullied by the EU’ card will be played anytime we have to deal with the EU in the WTO.
With that in mind, to answer the initial question, they do have all the cards, and they will continue to play all the cards regardless of them providing a counter proposal based in reality.
And it’s important to let them know that we’re not interested in listening to them as they play their fantasy "House of Cards" game, and consequently, what they are doing is really nothing more than playing with themselves.
/End
/End
